Carville Bashes Dem Convention Offering 'No Message'

     James Carville made a living as an attack dog for President Bill Clinton and liberal causes since 2000. But Carville switched to attacking his own party on CNN during coverage of the Democrat’s 2008 presidential convention.

     “Well if this party has a message, it’s done a hell of a job of hiding it tonight. I promise you that,” Carville, now a contributor for the cable news network, said August 25.

     Carville suggested the power brokers of the Democratic Party should be making President George W. Bush the focal point of their attacks in speeches – something he said was lacking.

     CNN’s Anderson Cooper fed Carville a few topics that he apparently assumed would be damaging to Republicans. “You haven’t heard about Iraq, you haven’t heard about John McCain,” Cooper said.

     “George W. Bush, I haven’t heard any of this. I mean it’s almost like we’re a country that is borderline recession. We’re 85 - 80 percent wrong track country,” Carville said. “People, health care, the energy, I haven’t heard anything about gas prices, I mean –maybe we are going to look better, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but right now like I say we are playing hide the message pretty good.”

     “I’m about to jump out the chair,” Carville added.

     Carville also appeared on the August 26 “American Morning” [1] and said he thought Democrats wasted the first day for not attacking Bush on these issues. Carville failed to mention that under Bush, the country experienced an unprecedented 52 straight weeks of job growth [2].

     “[The Ted Kennedy speech] was a great moment, absolutely,” Carville said. “But other stuff was wasted. There was no message that came out of here. I mean, look, this is the fifth night in a row that we’ve had a Democratic convention since George W. Bush, the most disastrous, incompetent and corrupt administration we’ve had in modern American history and we haven’t put it front and center. I mean, I am at loss…”

     Carville said they should have had speakers attacking the status quo and leadership under the Bush administration.

     “They should have had speakers up there saying, ‘Excuse me, but there’s a sense of urgency in this country,’” Carville said. “‘Excuse me, but this administration has taken a country that was the most ascendant nation since ancient Rome and run it in the ditch. Excuse me, but the surplus is gone. We have a deficit. Look what happened to health care costs. Look what’s happened to energy costs. Look what’s happening to income growth in this country. I heard none of that last night.’”